Saving money wile improving the look of your models

Ok lets discuss this then. Why the hell are people still paying out a crap load of money of GW primers and spray paints, GW are charging £9.50 for a can of primer, this is just stupid. Army painter are also charging about the same depending where you shop £8-10 range.

So lets work this out. You are going to start a new project, and you are picking up your supplies.

For the most part you are going to grab

Black Primer
White Primer
Clear coat

That's a total cost of £28.50.

Now lets look at the alternative.


Airbrush and compressor. £50 on Ebay

£2 for some Grey Primer
 £2 for Matt finish Clear coat
£2 White Paint
£2 Black paint.

So that's a total cost of £58

Wow you save  £29.50 if you go for GW sprays, Or do you.

Lets be honest here, a can of primer from GW will last you a couple of units and a few tanks, and then you have to go and spend £9.50 again to get some more. But if you go with an airbrush and compressor you have a high initial cost but the paints are stupidly cheap, and you can take it from me that those tiny little Madel Air pot by Vallejo out last a Citedel spray can, because you don't over spray the model and waste loads of paint. The paint is more directed at the model, rather that shooting out an arc of paint that decorates what ever you are spraying near.

Within 6 moths of using an airbrush and a compressor, you would of saved money on your hobby. your primer coats will be thinner and better. leaving more sharp detail edges on the model for an overall better look.

Its not even the fact that your saving money. I mean that is just on undercoating alone. How long does it take you to undercoat, And brush basecoat an entire squad of space marines? I bet its an hour or two at best.

I can undercoat, pre-shade, base coat, wash, and highlight a squad in half an hour, all with an airbrush.
The advantages are amazing, think of those tanks you are painting, watering down the paint, and applying countless thin layers to minimize those brush strokes. An airbrush saves you time and money full stop.

Now lets talk about GW answer to airbrushing. The cheapest of the cheap Hand flamer shaped Air brush. 
They charge £20 for this and then £5.50 for a can of compressed air, by the time you have painted an army, you would of used about 6 cans of compressed air, its not a viable option when half decent compressors are so cheap now. 

There is more of a bonus, if you use Model air paints you can do all your spraying in the comfort of your own home they are all water based acrylics that have no fumes what so ever, meaning your painting area does not stink of that typical GW spray paint smell.

Now don't get me wrong, an airbrush does not replace a brush and a pot of paint, you still need to do some hand brushing. But hand brushing the details on a model is fine, there are no large areas that brush strokes notice on. 

Now let's talk about paints for the airbrush. You are not going to want to try and use GW paints, they are useless for airbrushing. You will waste so much paint trying to thin them properly that it will cost you money. The GW paints DO NOT thin properly at all. They are designed for hand brushing, and there pigments are not fine enough to be properly used with an airbrush. The only thing that has managed to get them going through an airbrush half decently is matt medium, With a couple of drops of air brush thinner. But this gives you the problems of inaccurate mixes that can lead to unwanted non unification of unit colors.

So i suggest Badjer paints or Vallejo model air. Now these go for around £2 each. And don't think to your self, "I have hundreds of GW paints, I don't want to start again". You don't need to. The only paints you need to buy are the main ones for undercoating, base coating, and clear coating. The rest can be done with your GW paints.

Save your self some money and some time, And go grab an airbrush. You will thank your self for it.

For an awesome tutorial and help and advice on everything airbrush related check out Chung's channel. 

GW in finacial trouble. PAHAHA

GW in financial trouble. PAHAHA

So this has been cropping up a lot in recent months on many war gaming forums over the internet. People are claiming that GW are in financial trouble. And that the company could go down the pan very soon.

Is there any truth in this at all? No of course not, the only proof most of these people come up with is not actually proof at all, just spouting off things they don't like about GW, and making out like these are reasons they are getting into trouble.

So let's start with one of the big things. Specialist gaming is being dropped. As apparently they cant afford to keep it running. For one thing let's rephrase "specialist games" as to be honest all that means is "games only neck beard, Linux penguin T-shirt wearing, Basement dwellers play". And its true. Wile Necromunda was actually an OK game for its time. It got boring very quickly as did Blood Bowl and Battlefleet Gothic. And there is also no money to be made from these games. Most people buy one Necromunda gang, one Blood Bowl team, And one fleet. There is no repeat purchase options with these games. And all they are doing is taking up storage space that could be used for all the new army models that are being released in quick succession. And to top it off nobody buys them from GW as they just hit the Bay of E, and pick up a used fleet or team to play with.
Nobody said they where going broke when they dropped Dark Future or Gorka' Morka'.

And then we have the whole argument about 1 man operated GW stores. In this day and age, most people are more content to order online. So Games workshops don't need to have 5 guys working a store all day. Because for the most part the only customer base these stores do get is the random walk in. Back in the day the stores where the only place to get your items from. E-commerce didn't exist for the hobby, And everyone went to the stores to buy there models and play some games. Now the stores are only really there for a High street flag. Why should GW have to pay out money to over staff shops. when E-commerce will probably make up the largest percentage of there sales. They are running a Business after all. And to be quite honest with you. Most GW stores are run by elitist dweebs, So I have no intention to go into there stores anyway.


 I recently went to the GW Mecca in the UK the HQ at Nottingham. It is basically a Museum for GW, with the option to higher a A battlefield for the day. And these are not just run of the mill scenery. these are the Battle fields we drool over in White dwarf. There is a Pub/Restaurant that has gorgeous food, and ridiculously low prices. And a huge GW store that isn't actually run by elitist dweebs, the guys will happily jump on a table with you and have a game if you are there on your own. hell they will even let you riffle through the ton of forge world goodies behind the counter if you are thinking of buying some. I walked out of there with a Great Brass Scorpion, If that is a sign of a company struggling with finances. Then I hope I start to struggle soon. 

Grumpy War Gamer Introduction

 

 

Howdy folks, lets get introductions out of the way. My names Clayton, I'm giving you my real name as I don't believe in hiding behind an avatar, all an avatar is, is just a huge Internet man sausage that you can hide your true self behind. And your goal in life is to become the alpha man sausage, in the digital world of the Internet, where you make threats. and tell people that you like to play warhammer 40K on a table next to your 900bhp Nissan GTR, 
Yeah that's right "that ******* guy" 

But if you are wondering my main Internet ^ is cerbrus2. Had it since I was 10 years old, and yes! before I could even spell Cerberus. Having said that. It makes it easier to get the screen name you want on the Internet.

I am a 29 year old male. With a soon to be wife (if i ever give in and propose to her) a step son who is 8 and I will refer to him in my blog posts only as Child B, and my own 2 year old boy. Who is the direct reaction of rolling a double 6 on the Chaos boon table after birthday Giggeddy. I will refer to him later in my post's as Child C.

I recently got back into Warhammer 40k After stopping years ago. It was a friend of mine who told me to go buy an army. So like any self respecting person I went and purchased a Chaos Space Marine battle force to get me started. A year later and im rocking 6000 points of Night lords. 4000 points of Dark Eldar and A recent purchase of an 1850pt Tau army that i will be using to start doing a few tournaments with, if i can get used to Sushi. 

I am an avid PC overclocker, I love to dable with some Dry Ice and Liquid Nitrogen at the weekends. but im one for Building PC's rather than using them.



So down to the nitty gritty. Why am I writing this blog? Well first of all so you don't have to listene to me moaning on Forums about crap as "man can i moan". well That's what she said. I love war gamming and like anything that is loved, we also love to moan about it. So I made this blog in order to shout my opinions on what i think about this hobby and A lot of other "things" that get on my tits in this world we live in today.

So without babbling on too much on an introduction, I would just like to say that i hope you continue to read my posts, and maybe just maybe have a giggle wile you are at it. 

Thanks for reading

Clayton.

A new FAQ for Eldar?

 

It seems as though GW have already released a FAQ for the new Codex: Eldar. And this is no spelling mistake. It seems they have a whole new profile for the Shadow Weaver Weapon. The Pic below it is taken from the new FAQ.

Now this is all well and good, But for those people that went and spent the money out of a limited edition dust cover, they now have to draw on there limited edition codex's or carry around the FAQ sheet with them from now on.

Wile GW love the digital releases, I can honestly say that I prefer to hold the book in my hands than stare at my fruit based tablet. If they continue to make adjustments to the new codex's, the digital variants with the auto updates feature is looking more feasible. But only as a battle reference. When it comes to reading your back story and such, you can beat those glossy pages. Oh and the smell of a new book, or is it just me that has to open a new book and smell the spine? Come on admit it you all do it.

  

The Forces of Chaos

 Well I have finally finished my Brass scorpion. Its only taken me 2 months But i finally got on with.

Have to say I actually wasn't very impressed with the overall quality of the mold lines. i think I got a Friday afternoon job. As I had to do tons of sanding and filling on the Armour plates to get the edges smooth enough for painting.

Any way a few pics.

Now dont get me wrong I am in no way a great painter, half the time i have to force my self too paint. But i dont think this came out all that bad.


Also I have finished my Plague marines.

So what is next, well I cant honestly tell you. I am planning a trip to Nottingham GW HQ again soon. and I'm coming up with a forge world shopping list.

The problem I'm having now is. apart from Eldar, there is no other armies i want to go for. I could switch and get some Warhammer fantasy. but they just seem too repetitive to enjoy making the models or painting them.

So I'm guessing forge world is the only way forward. the problem is the price. a Unit of 30 pre heresy space marines will set you back £160. that's £100 more than the equivalent in GW. granted the quality is amazing. and i do really want them. but lets be honest here. that's just for troops. I then need a Primarch "Angron" obviously. And the tanks are well over the £150 mark for 1.

But this would not be a problem if it wasn't for the fact I also want to grab a Chaos Renegade army. to boost my Chaos Force into Apocalypse points value. 

So what is one to do. I think I'm going to go with a £1000 in my pocket and get what ever i can for that money. Probably leaning more towards the renegades as i will get to use them more often and be able to use them as imperial guard in normal 40k battles. Stay tuned though.

The Wargamers Consortium: GW... Not for the Greater Good

A very in depth view of GW from the WC. I haven't actually been hurt by the shortages, only having to wait for a week for the my Riptide. But it seems as though if you are not in the UK you are having to wait a long time for anything GW. I personally think this is because GW are being to slap dash with the releases of new Codex's and models. And cannot full fill the large request for them. Eldar is next out on the release schedule so lets see just how bad they full fill orders with the new Eldar.

Check out the link, and have a read. its a very good post.


The Wargamers Consortium: GW... Not for the Greater Good:

Horus Heresy News

  Ok so the Horus heresy big weekend seems to of shed a light on where forge world are going with the Horus Heresy. with the announcement of a Book 2 and a Book 3, Book two is supposed to include Salamanders, Iron hands, Word Bearers, Night Lords, Titan Legion and Legio Cybernetica.And is going to be heavily based on the Isstvan V drop site massacre.  Wile Book 3 is said to include Raven Guard, iron Warriors, Alpha Legion and Imperial Fists. And also covers the Battle of Isstvan V and the Battle of Phall. With Dark angels and White Scars. Making an appearance in Book Seven

 

Also A quick peek at the Nightlords can be found on the Forgeworld website itself. Man i hope they release Konrad Curz, I will actually strip naked and run through the streets shouting "Ave Dominus Nox"

We also have a sneak peek at the Salamanders as well.

No news on if we are actually going to get a Horus model yet, but with the inclusion of the Battlemasters rules in Book One, we can only hope. We may also see an Argel Tal model as well. Aparently this is just going to be the First trilogy of the Horus Heresy. Now I'm hoping that this will eventualy lead to the Siege at the Emperors Palace.

There was a presentation showing some new units thes included the "missing link" tank, half Landraider half Predator.

A new Drop pod, Assault Claw. Arrives by Deep strike But can also take off and fly away again. The size comparison they show with a 28mm figure has this Drop pod looking like a serious heavy weight. It comes with a range of weaponry including a new weapon named the Vortex Melta.

New Mechanicum models for the Legio Cybernetica also featured. The Battle-Automata.

And a New Word Bearers model. Its only Erebus.

All in all it looks to be an exciting, if not very expensive time to be in the hobby.